Review Uno Noteband Activity Tracker

The Uno Noteband is based on a clever concept. It is both a productivity device and a wearable activity tracking device. I was initially fascinated with the concept. Uno claims they can sent your phone notifications to the wristband. The user can read a text, notification, IM or email message word by word on their Noteband! The theory you can read much faster if your eyes do not have to scanning back and forth.

I entusiastically agreed when I had the opportnity to receive a review copy of the Uno Noteband.

My Experience Using The Uno Noteband (Review in Progress)

This product is innovative, potentially useful and the design is pretty good. However, as it, it should not be on the market! It pains me to leave a lackluster l review, but I cannot honestly recommend it.

I received it to review, but if I paid for it I would send it back for a refund.

It is possible that my review might change. Here is a little background… I am an experienced activity tracker user. I have reviewed a few different trackers and I wear one every day.

I was really interested in the notifications feature of the Uno Band. Uno (if it works) sends notifications from your phone to the band. the promise is you can read you emails, texts, or other personal messages quickly from the band and can save precious time. From the little bit I could see that works fine (sometimes).

The band design is nice. It isn’t the most elegant but I think it looks better than a Fitbit Charge and some other bands I have seen. The band strap is lightweight, slim and easy to adjust to the perfect size. Because I cannot get it to fully work after one month of use, I have not worn it more than a day to see how well it stays on (one problem with activity tracker bands is that they sometimes fall off).

Despite my positive comments on the design, this product should not be on the market. I cannot get the app to work. I have sent messages through the app to Uno’s technical support (using the option in the app) and I sent a message to the rep who sent me the free band. Neither responded. The issue with this is that an activity tracker band is useless without a woking app. I am not able to save a record of previous days activity. With no recorded history, there is no point in wearing an activity tracker. I use my other trackers to evaluate my activity for the previous day or week and to use that feedback to motivate me to be more active or to maintain a good activity level.

I am fairly tech savvy and have set up several different wearable trackers and other devices so it should have been easy for me to get the Uno working. It took me six attempts to get the band working. The first attempt required I download the current firmware and that took three hours with no completed download. I had to abandon it. I guess that must have killed my tracker because ever since I receive a notice that my tracker was “left in a bad state”. All I did was receive it in the mail, charge it and go through the setup process according to instructions. The fourth attempt, the tracker started to work but the app still did not work. I was able to read notification and wear it for a day. It counted much fewer steps than my Fitbit. (And my Fitbit slightly undercounts compared to me manually counting steps as I take them).

The battery life is three days at best in my experience. I say “at best” because I wore it one day. Since I was not able to connect it to the app I set it o my desk. Three days later I thought I would try again and it was out of charge. So far, my band has spent more time plugged into the charger than on my wrist. The charger, but the way, is an example of decent design.

I would not recommend this due to the following factors:The app doesn’t work at all on an iPhone 6 running the most up-to-date operating system. Perhaps it works on the newest model or another type of phoneThe technical support through the app is completely nonexistentIt took me four attempts and more than four hours to install the firmware on the device due to the app not working and I suspect it isn’t even correctly installed (based on the message from the app).The battery life is poor — less than four days*The activity tracker seems to undercount

The benefits I can see:The design is a little different than many trackers and may be pleasing to some peopleIt is easy to get this band to fit your wrist as long as it is smaller than the band*The notifications feature would be useful for many people and you really can read an entire email very quickly with this band

However, I cannot recommend it until the technical issues are resolved.

I received a free Uno Band to review, all opinions and experiences described are my own. I see a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews so I hope that just means that I received a faulty band.

ETA: I am hoping that I will be able to revise this review with a higher rating as I think this product does have potential.

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